PHOENIXVILLE — You may have been seeing the color pink in various aspects in town since Saturday.

The Paint the Town For Pete’s Sake campaign will be conducted in Phoenixville throughout October to raise awareness about breast cancer, and raise money for local people that need help.

Organizers said money raised during the campaign will benefit Phoenixville Health Care Access Foundation and For Pete’s Sake Cancer Respite Foundation. Money going to FPS will in turn help families in Phoenixville that are dealing with cancer.

PHCAF is an organization that helps those who are eligible obtain appointments for mammograms, dental, vision or other health services that wouldn’t normally be able to get care. For Pete’s Sake provides respites or trips for cancer victims and their families for peace and family bonding.

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The campaign wbegan with the Sept. 28 Phantoms Football team’s “Play for the Cure” Game where the Phantoms, coaches and crowd wore pink jerseys. STS Tire, Kimberton, sponsored a half-time field goal kick contest.

On Oct. 5, First Friday, the town will be lit up pink. Phoenixville Hospital is sponsoring the lights initiative. Raffles will be available at the Paint the Town Pink table.

The public is also invited to participate in a 5K Run/Walk at 9 a.m. on Oct. 20 at Franklin Commons.

Phoenixville Fire Department’s pink truck will be present at First Friday on Oct. 5 and the run on Oct. 20. Dr. Bruce Weiner of Phoenixville Hospital and breast cancer survivors will be riding in the truck to First Friday.

The idea for the breast cancer awareness campaign in Phoenixville came from Robin Heist, breast care navigator at Phoenixville Hospital. Heist is a breast cancer survivor.

“The initial idea was to raise awareness in Phoenixville, helping to spread the word of getting routine mammograms done,” Heist said. “This is a personal campaign for me and it’s near and dear to my heart.”

Cancer survivors Mika Maloney of Chester Springs and Mark Cunningham, owner of Crown Trophy, Phoenixville, connected with Heist after they discussed conducting events that would benefit PHCAF and FPS. Thanks to For Pete’s Sake, Cunningham and his family were sent on a respite.

For Pete’s Sake consultant Maloney said when she and Cunningham met, they started to talk and realized they were both from the Phoenixville area. They decided to team up and help conduct fundraisers in their hometown of Phoenixville.

“We wanted to rally around families facing burdens of cancer in various ways,” Maloney said.

“For Pete’s Sake provides respite for families in crisis, facing tough odds,” she added. “The organization creates opportunities for families to unify family bonds. This is the memory that needs to last forever. We wanted to launch what we were going to do in October with creating awareness not just limited to just breast cancer.”

She said organizers want to expand and make this an annual event to raise money for families facing cancer.

Once everyone started to connect, a committee for the Paint the Town Pink for Pete’s Sake was formed.

Maloney said she worked with Lisa McLemore of the Phoenixville Football Parents Association, which led to the campaign kicking off at the football game.

While reaching out to other facets of the community, the campaign grew to the business community and Phoenixville Area School District.

Several businesses have agreed to participate in FPS’ fundraiser, Change is Good. The businesses will display a pink piggy bank that customers can place some spare change in, Maloney said.

Phoenixville Area High School students Jessica Tague and her friend, Samantha Trafford are working with the art department to conduct a breast cancer awareness poster contest at the high school and middle school for their senior projects.

Businesses participating in Change is Good will display the breast cancer awareness posters.

Cunningham said he saw benefits after his respite to Davenport, Fla., four years ago. He was diagnosed with tongue and Stage 3B neck cancer. During the trip to Florida, the family stayed at a house instead of at a Disney park. The Cunninghams visited Disney World and Universal Studios.

“Being in the house was a million times better (than staying at Disney),” Cunningham said. “When I got tired, I could take a nap. It was a lot more relaxing than if I had stayed at one of the parks.”

FPS paid for the car rental, park tickets and gave the family spending money, Cunningham said.

FPS pays for children under 18 to go on the respites. All the family had to do was pay for his son’s plane fare.

Cunningham said it was good for the family to get away for a while. They had told his son that year at Thanksgiving about the diagnosis after he was home from college, but his daughter, who was an eighth grader, had been living with the stress every day.

“It is really is harder on caregivers than it is than person that has cancer,” Cunningham said.

He was an assistant coach for his daughter’s basketball team and he couldn’t yell for the team during the games after his surgery.

Cunningham said people would whisper about him at the games.

“Everybody identifies you with cancer,” Cunningham said. “People don’t want to talk to you because they don’t know what to say.”

“Once we got away, no one was asking us questions,” he said. “No one knew anything different.”

He said the highlight of the trip was when he and his family sat down at a meal together and his children reminisced about memories from past Christmases.

“That was the first time I felt normal in four months,” Cunningham said.